1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cargo handling equipment. In particular, the invention relates to cages used for bundling up items during transport and for temporary storage. To be precise, the invention relates to a collecting cage according to the preamble part of claim 1.
2. Description of the Related Art
Parcelled goods have been traditionally transported by stacking the goods on pallets, wrapping the unit with shrink wrap and loading the wrapped pallets onto trailers or lorries. The traditional way of handling parcelled freight has been deemed uneconomical due to the labour intensity of packing pallets, extensive use of packing material, such as shrink wrap and cardboard. Traditional pallets have also provided little protection against brisk handling, which has resulted in damages and increased the cost of transport. To tackle these problems, collecting cages have been introduced.
Collecting cages are typically stackable and foldable cages made of high tensile steel that provides an attractive alternative to distribution and storage of high volume goods. The collecting cages, cages in short, are usually handled with a fork lift similarly to traditional pallets. Because the cages are stackable, they can be stacked on top each other, which enables high volumetric efficiency when transporting full cages. On the other hand, because the cages are foldable, high volumetric efficiency is also achieved when transporting empty cages. Furthermore, the robust structure of the cage protects the cargo during handling.
However, known cages have considerable disadvantages. Because the cages are designed to withstand burly handling, known structures feature elements, such as hinges, whose primary purpose is to endure great forces. In real life, such robust cages have been found cumbersome to use. While providing improvement to the economy of transport, known cages tend to require abundantly effort or space to maneuver.
It is an object of the present invention to solve at least some of the aforementioned disadvantages and to provide an improved collecting cage.